A Democratic Socialist Blog

Voter Democracy

<Following the French elections once again, we find how a democracy in voter democracy is suppose to work. First lets look at American Elections. America is not a democracy in this fashion because. We have ballot access suppression and restrictions that only the Democrats and Republicans have access too.
The 2011 French Socialist Party presidential primary was the first open primary (primaires citoyennes), jointly held by the French Socialist Party and Radical Party of the Left for selecting their candidate for the 2012 presidential election. Voters had to donate at least one Euro and sign a pledge to the values of the Left to be eligible. The filing deadline for primary nomination papers was fixed on 13 July 2011 and six candidates competed in the first round of the vote. On election day, 9 October 2011, no candidate won 50 percent of the vote, and the two candidates with the most votes contested a runoff election on 16 October 2011: François Hollande won the primary, defeating Martine Aubry.
All political party’s have a primary a year before. In the United States, primaries happen the same year but only two parties participate. Two parties with similar management schemes. Normally the front runner is the designated winner. There are ten political parties (in France) that will run and the top three will be in the general elections. But there are multiple party philosophies. The Conservatives, Socialist Party, Workers Struggle. These parties have no restrictions and there are ten candidates.
In Germany as in other Countries there can be seven candidates and five parties sharing the Bundstieg. Some parties form coalitions for shared interest.
In America, if the American Labor Party held 1/3 of Congress and Senate, and ½ of the Democrats where progressive and republican have an equal amount to Blue Dog Democrats. The ALP can form a Coalition with The Progressives and out vote the Blue Dogs and Republicans. In America issues can last 40 to 100 years. In many nations the problems are solved and finished only once.
After the three candidates are left for the general election, the winner has the highest vote. But if the is a near tie or close race among two or three candidates, the one is eliminated for an instant run off election. The remaining two candidates are in an instant runoff and the winner gets elected.
Instant-runoff voting or transferable voting, is an electoral method used to elect one winner. It is a form of preferential voting (or ranked choice voting) in which voters rank the candidates in order of votes, and their ballots are counted as one vote for their first choice candidate. If a candidate secures a majority of votes cast, that candidate wins. The candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated. A new round of counting takes place, with each ballot counted as one vote for the advancing candidate who has thehighest votes on that ballot. This process continues until the winning candidate receives a majority of the votes against the remaining candidates. In 2006 the U.S. city of Burlington, Vermont, held a mayoral election using instant runoff voting. Progressive Bob Kiss won in two rounds with 48.6% of the first round ballots, defeating Democrat Hinda Miller who achieved 40.7%. 10.6% (1,031) of the ballots were exhausted before the final round, because those voters (largely backers of Republican candidate Kevin Curley) offered no preference between the final two candidates, Miller and Kiss. After the first round, all but two candidates were eliminated, as their combined vote total (2,863) was less than Miller's, so that none could pull ahead of Miller, even by receiving every vote from the other minor candidates. The votes for these candidates were recounted and redistributed between Kiss and Miller. After the second round count, Kiss was declared the winner as he had obtained a majority (54.4%) of the remaining unexhausted ballots.
This eliminates the myth of spoiler and vote stealer. The myths undermine democracy because who cold force anyone to vote for them. It is like the myth of stealing jobs.
If a person can steal votes then they can teal all the votes and get elected. Spoiler is a myth because people vote their free will. Many will not vote for two part candidates, and the turnout is less anyway. Besides what if the spoiler wins? Buy locking the electorate in a two party system aren’t the Democrats and Republicans steal the vote?